Cover-Girl
by CaptainKnucklebones
Summary: Years ago, Olivia Benson found Lena, a five-year-old girl with ‘abilities’, in a perp’s basement during a case and kept tabs on her. Now, during a case with girls going missing after being arrested, SVU needs Lena’s help. OC with mother-daughter relationship with Olivia.
1. CHAPTER 1

The girl pulled the hood over her head, cursing herself for not grabbing a scarf or hat on the way out. Not that she could really blame herself, she didn't have a lot of time to get out of there when everything started going down.

"Listen here, you little shit."

The voice echoed in her mind, but she forcefully suppressed it deep, deep down as tears began stinging her eyes. She refused to cry over this anymore. Not again.

She took a sharp left around the corner and hit a tall man's shoulder. Before he even had the chance to apologize, she was yelling at him, "Watch where you're walking, asshole." She shoved her hands in her pockets, only then looked up to his face to watch a sour expression form.

"Fuck off, slut." He stepped around the girl and kept walking, huffing at the indignity of girls these days.

Lena adjusted her jacket, deciding if she should run after him. Although the initial shout had felt satisfying and good, the man's rebuttal made her feel like street trash. So she turned back around anyway and continued on her way, scolding herself for once again allowing a man's words to put her down. She's really gotta cut that out.

Besides, she was on a mission and it'd be stupid to start shit three feet from her destination. And at a police station, no less.

The girl approached and watched as the older man struggled to pull the heavy doors of the building open, just as she had seen multiple people before struggle. While forcing down a smug grin, the girl rushed to the other side of the man and pulled the door open with ease. The man couldn't mask his amazement from his face and Lena found satisfaction in it as she motioned for him to walk through and followed behind him. She massaged her left bicep from the "strain" as the door crashed shut behind her.

The girl found the precinct to be in chaos and disarray as she walked further into the building. The older man she walked in with went off to her right and she vaguely wondered what brought him here today, and regretted not finding out. She was an incredibly nosey girl. But, alas, she was here for a purpose and pushed herself towards the elevators on the left.

Lena gently nudged the "up" button with a knuckle from underneath her hoodie and rocked back and forth on her heels as she waited for the doors to open. Only a couple beats passed before they did and Lena took a step into the elevator, only to feel something obstruct her path.

The girl looked down to see a man's arm—belonging to the elevator security guard—stuck out across the door. Startled by the contact, she instantly stepped back. "Keep your hands off me." Lena warned dangerously, her fists gripped tightly by her sides.

"Ma'am," the guard didn't seem very concerned, "you need an escort to go above this floor."

Lena rolled her eyes, "I have one, she's just upstairs if you just let me talk to her then—" She attempted to step again into the elevator, only to be halted a second time.

"No can do, missy. Your detective has to meet you down here or you're welcome to talk to one of our street officers across the hall." He moved to stand more in the way of the door, obstructing her path and looming over the young girl.

"You don't understand, she's just—" Lena made a final attempt to squeeze past the officer before she felt a stranger near her skin, her hand—specifically—as it gripped the side of the elevator door.

In that moment, a woman's warm hand only lightly grazed the tips of Lena's fingers, but it was enough for the girl to get a pretty good read on the woman. She saw the woman's kind eyes that were partially obscured by thin spectacles and graying brunette hair before she even turned around. Images instantly flashed at the front of the girl's mind; a small boy sitting on a counter in a quaint kitchen, a book in her lap in her favorite chair of the living room, tears falling on case files in an office. The woman, who's name was Doctor Myka Brewster, had a green aurora—a light shade, like summer grass—and felt mainly things such as heartache and pride for those around her.

"Thank you, Officer Dudley, but I can handle this from here." A soft and sophisticated voice suggested from behind her. The security guard stood down and sunk back into the empty elevator as Lena turned around. She didn't have any words yet, as the girl was shaken by the contact and the vision she'd received of who this woman was. Lena hadn't met her yet, but she already knew all about her.

"Can I help you, kiddo?" The woman asked, and Lena could feel her eyes scanning over her.

"Um, yes, actually," Lena suddenly found her vans extremely interesting, not even mad at being called 'kiddo', and certainly not making eye contact with the nice lady, "I'm need to speak with Olivia Benson." The girl mentally kicked herself. She was stupid for coming here, of course it wouldn't be easy or private.

"Come on in." the woman waved the girl into her office, which was to the right of the elevators. The room was small, but almost cozy—for an office in an NYPD building. Lena noticed the several degrees that hung on the wall and three lamps in the room, in an effort to brighten up the dismal office. Lena also took note of the many picture frames on the woman's desk, and although Lena could not see the pictures, she had a pretty good idea already of what they looked like. "Take a seat, I'll call up to her." She motioned for the girl to sit in the chair across from her desk.

"Um." Lena said as she pointed to the chair. It was filled with papers and case files, there was no way she could sit there.

"Oh, sorry dear, my apologies." The woman rushed to the chair, but Lena was already shuffling the papers together. "I can take those." The woman reached out and Lena placed the files in her hands. This time, Lena was more careful to avoid contact as they made the hand-off.

The woman nodded for the girl to sit, and the girl was obedient for once, as the lady sat behind her desk and picked up the phone. A second passed and the Doctor spoke into the phone, "Hi, yes, can you connect me with Olivia Benson, Special Victims Unit?" The woman's eyes flicked up to watch the young girl glance around the office. When she was sure the girl wouldn't see her, she scanned over the bruise on the girl's young face, gauging for severity and a possible time frame in case she needed to add her name to the report Benson would be making about the girl. "Hi Detective Benson, one moment." The lady shifted her phone to speak to the girl, "I realize I didn't catch your name."

"Lena." The girl provided, quick to demonstrate her willingness for cooperation as a mode of appreciation, even though the response was delayed as the girl had been deep in thought.

"Hi, Detective, I have a 'Lena' here to see you." The woman straightened the papers on her desk and the girl anxiously awaited a long pause, "Yes, of course." The woman nodded as if Olivia could see her, then set the phone down with a plastic 'click' and addressed the spacey girl across her desk, "Detective Benson will be down in a few minutes."

Lena could only manage a nod, as she was shifting uncomfortably under the woman's gaze. The Doctor was staring at her over her glasses and with such scrutiny that Lena felt she might as well have all her secrets written on her forehead.

"I've had the pleasure of meeting Detective Benson several times," Doctor Brewster said, surprising Lena with the sound and information, "She's a very kind soul, but certainly quite a force to be reckoned with." The woman chuckled at some recent memory of the detective, and Lena couldn't help but chuckle a bit as well.

"Quite a force." The woman repeated, sombering, and Lena knew she was wondering what tragedy would have tied the girl's fate with the tour-de-force detective's.

Luckily, before any questions could be asked or barriers penetrated, the elevator doors 'ding'ed and the Detective strode into the office. "Lena." The woman breathed, rushing to kneel in front of the girl's chair. She opened her arms and the girl fell forward into the detective's warm embrace.

"Olivia." Lena's arms wrapped behind the woman's neck and held steadfast. She finally felt safe. Well, as close as she'd ever felt, anyway.

The moment was over faster than Lena would've preferred, as Olivia pulled back from their hug to cup the girl's face and look at it intensely. "What the hell happened, Lee?" The bruise on her right eye was fresh, only just starting to swell and gain color. But even in its early stage, Olivia could tell it was going to look bad and hurt like a bitch. "How hard did they hit you?" It would take a hard hit on anybody to look this bad, but Lena wasn't just anybody. And for Lena to be that bruised, they must have hit her hard.

Lena suddenly became aware again of the other person's presence in the room, "There was an incident, 'Livia." Despite herself, hot, fresh tears poured down her face fearlessly, "I couldn't help it. I couldn't."

Olivia wordlessly pulled the girl back into her arms, shushing her and tracing small, calming circles on her back. "Let's go upstairs, kid. We'll figure this out." She adjusted Lena's jacket so it was on straight after it had fallen off a bit, and they both stood. Remembering the doctor who had been watching the whole interaction, the Detective turned to her position in the corner and thanked her, "I really appreciate you calling me. I'll see you around, Doctor."

"Of course, Benson." Brewster nodded humbly, "Take care, Lena."

"Thank you, ma'am." The girl wiped the tears from her face and attempted at a grateful smile, before she turned around and followed Olivia to the elevators. She was sure to send a spiteful 'I told you so' glance to the security guard as she followed the Detective in, but afterwards was consumed in collecting herself during the short ride. She felt Olivia glance at her more than once or twice, but ignored her and stared straight ahead at the faux-wooden panels.

Finally, the elevator 'dinged' and Lena followed the Detective off and into the precinct. The place was somewhat calmer than the first floor, but it had the same smell of fresh paper and stale coffee. Lena allowed herself to take a breath, relieved to have retreated to safety at last. Lena noticed that Elliot wasn't at his desk, and neither was his jacket or files or any other personal effects, which meant he was probably out somewhere in the city on a call. Lena was grateful that he wouldn't see her as the mess she is today.

When the pair reached Olivia's desk, Lena was motioned to sit in the chair as the Detective sat on the edge of the desk. The woman's body language was calmer and heavier than a couple minutes before, and Lena was just glad she wasn't about to watch Olivia freak out at her. Instead, a frustrated question was asked, "I thought everything was going alright, Lena?"

"It was." The girl shrugged, although it wasn't completely true. Tensions had been rising for a while, she'd known it was a matter of time before something happened.

Olivia rubbed an eye then pushed a fallen strand of hair behind her ear. "Tell me what happened."

"I broke a glass..." The girl's eyes flickered to the woman's knowingly, "I dropped it and I didn't catch it and it shattered. I tried to pick it up, but Jason heard the crash and came to see what happened. He wasn't actually that mad until I talked back, that's when he hit me."

"And you still don't want to press charges?" Olivia pleaded, standing.

The girl rotated the chair and leaned forward, "I'll be 16 in a week, 'Livia. Then I can get out of there and I can just put it all behind me and—"

"But how am I supposed to protect you?" The detective interrupted her, angry. Lena started to open her mouth to explain that's why she came here, but she doesn't have the chance. "Dammit, Lena. Am I supposed to just standby and watch this prick give you black eyes?" The woman threw her arms out to her sides.

"Olivia, I came here because I trust you. I didn't know where else to go. If you don't want to... then I... I gotta go." The girl started to stand, already berating herself for coming here, when her friend stopped her.

"No! Lena..." She trailed off, pinched the bridge of her nose, regretful. "I'm sorry. I'll respect your decision to not press charges." She reclaimed her seat on the corner of her desk. "I'm glad you came to me, and I'm glad you're safe. But I can't take you home or out to talk about it right now. We're in the middle of a case."

Lena's heart broke a little bit. Very rarely—in their years of friendship—has Olivia rescheduled their time together because of work, and never has she cancelled on her when Lena has come to her for help, though those days were —thankfully—definitely less in number. "Oh," She moved to stand again, and actually made it to her feet this time, "You're right." She felt so stupid for coming here. Olivia's the only person that's never let her down. Ever. But of course, everyone lets you down eventually. "Of course. I should let you get back to work then." The girl bolted towards the door.

But the Detective stopped her immediately. "It's not that, it's just that I can't stop working right now. If you want to hang around here for an hour or so, though, I can take you home if there's no breaks in the case."

Lena turned towards the detective and uncrossed her arms. "Are you sure?" The girl asked timidly.

"Yeah, of course! Maybe we can get some McNuggets on the way back." The detective winked, trying to lighten the mood and pull the girl from a scary headspace. "But you gotta promise to not be distracting. I actually gotta work for an hour." The woman playfully nudged the girl with her elbow as the turned back towards her desk. They pulled up a chair to the side of Olivia's desk for Lena to sit in and wait as the detective went sifting through her files, searching them for the two-hundredth time looking for something she'd missed.

Almost an hour later, the girl was dramatically leaned across the desk. She was awake, just desperately bored, and had always had a flare for theatrics. Although her arms spanned almost half the desk, the detective smuggly ignored her. Though, secretly, she enjoyed the girl's antics and hadn't minded when the girl loudly collapsed on the table in attempt to stop the boredom and 'Livia's work. She had just calmly pushed the case files she'd need to the opposite side of the table and used the girl's arms to prop up her files for hands-free reading.

Something started beeping, but before Olivia could check her cell for some kind of message or her desk phone for a call, Lena sprung up from her position. "It's been an hour." The girl grinned as she pressed a button on the side of her watch.

Lena noticed how Olivia sighed heavily and exchanged her cheeky grin for a concerned frown, "The case that bad, huh?" She leaned forward, maybe trying for a peak at the case file. The detective, however, closed her current file and gave a slow, weighted nod. "What's it about?"

Olivia momentarily paused as she shifted focus away from the case and attempted away from her frustration, "These girls are going missing from juvenile centers, and we can't figure out how, much less who and why. It's like they're disappearing into thin air." She shook her head, done with thinking abut the case for now and taking a second to decompress, "But I'll go check with Cap about taking a lunch break." Olivia glanced at her watch as she stood from her chair, and when she read 2:49, she sighed and guessed she'd missed actual lunch. She pulled on her coat while she scanned over the girl. "Where's your coat?" She asked, upon not finding it on the back of the girl's chair.

"I... left it." Lena reluctantly answered. She'd already berated herself for leaving it when the cold city wind hit her on the way here and hoped the detective wouldn't repeat the same monologue.

Olivia sighed, disappointed but not in the girl. She knew Lena didn't want to be cold outside any more than she wanted her to be. She knew the girl would've gone back for it if she could have. The detective debated if they should go get the girl another coat, but this one to stay solely in Olivia's car for emergencies like this, but immediately struck the thought down. That had always been the rule. Olivia could buy the girl necessities or breakfast or even little gifts occasionally, but they could not be left with Olivia for any amount of time after the girl left. If the girl started leaving stuff with the detective, Olivia might be inclined to feel that they would stay there and that the girl would return to stay too. And that was a dangerous, disappointing feeling.

"I've got an extra in my locker near the crib, you can go get it." Olivia grabbed her own coat and pulled it on as she started towards her Captain's office.

"I hope it looks good on me." The girl exasperated dramatically and Olivia didn't need to turn around to know there was a mischievous glint in the girl's eyes.

The girl stood from the swivel chair she'd been practically dying in for the past hour and shook out the tension in her body, refusing to let the day's events get to her. She was spending time with her favorite person, who cared enough to take time out of her day for her—which was more than Lena could say about anyone else in her life—and for right then, that was enough.

Lena made her way down the hall to the lockers and dared to peak her head into the crib. It was empty of people, but the memory of the only other time she'd been in the room haunted her. She saw a reflection of herself on the closest bed, little and scared and hurt, and Lena felt a tinge of anger. She'd vowed to never let someone make her feel so small ever again, and she'd been mostly successful in the last seven years; no one had made her feel that way, not without paying for it. Lena took a breath, telling herself to cool it, as her eyes scanned over the bed next to the door, where Olivia had sat for hours as she slept, until the Social Services lady could pick her up the next morning. 'Livia watched over her all night, not sleeping a wink. The thought brought a smile to her face as she turned back to the lockers.

Lena pushed up the metal lever and reached into Olivia's locker to grab the coat when a familiar face came around the corner. "Mista Tee, what's up?" The girl couldn't help but smile in the man's presence. They did their usual dap that had been through years of perfection. "It's good to see you, man."

"You too, lil momma," Detective Tutuola nodded at eye, "Did Liv see that?"

Lena pulled the coat out of the locker, "Yeah," she answered, pulling on the heavy fabric, "She wasn't too impressed. I think it makes me look cool." She smirked.

"Me too, kid. As long as the guy who did it has one to match." Tutuola said it lightly, but caught the girl's gaze so that she knew he meant business.

Lena looked down, straightening the jacket. She felt a reassuring touch on her shoulder and watched as Fin wordlessly sauntered into the Crib, closing the door behind him. Lena groaned, because he was right and they both knew it. The girl shoved her hands in her pockets as she wondered back to Olivia's desk.

When she got there, Olivia wasn't back, which was a bad sign. It meant something had come up or that she was getting in trouble. Either way, their outing together was looking less likely. Lena sat on the corner of the 'Livia's desk and looked across the bullpen to the Captain's office. She didn't have her glasses on, so she wasn't sure, but the blinds looked closed. Another bummer of a sign.

Lena was staring a little too closely at the covered door and windows of the office when one of the blinds lifted up and she swore the eyes were looking right at her. The girl immediately looked for something to do—which was, apparently, to inspect a nearby stapler—but she was sure she was conspicuously delayed. Though the next time she looked up, only a few seconds later, the eyes were gone and Lena was left with a looming discomfort.

The young girl still had hope that all was well, however, until the door suddenly swung open and Captain Cragen stormed out and directly towards her, with a protesting Detective Benson in tow. Lena was nervous, even though she didn't work there, just as any sane person would be if a Police Captain charged out of their office and directly to them. Lena hadn't prepared any sort of question or statement in the couple of seconds that it took for the Captain to reach her, so she shut her mouth and waited for whatever was coming.

"Lena." He curtly nodded. The greeting was not intimate but it wasn't mean either, which was about as friendly as the Captain got.

The girl swallowed her nerves and managed a calm, "Sir."

"Benson mentioned the case to you?" He shoved his hands in his pockets. Lena nodded, perplexed. She was sure the man was coming to tell her to quit loitering around here and get out. "Well, we need some help with it."

Perplexing indeed. Lena couldn't think of anything that would have surprised her less. A smirk crept it's way into her lips as she ignored the tension radiating from Olivia. "Perhaps I could be of assistance?" The girl sat up a little straighter, pushing her shoulders back and chest out just slightly.

"No," Olivia immediately denied, "No way. Captain, she's just a kid. Just look at—"

"Detective." Cragen reprimanded, brushing her off to keep focus on the girl. "Look, Lena." The man visibly relaxed and Lena could tell he was about to be honest with her for once. "There's twelve missing girls, and nothing we're doing is helping and we've got no new leads. We've been sitting on this case for months now already, and we're about to hand this over to Cold Case, where they'll let it rot."

"How can I help?" Lena rushed to ask, not giving Olivia time to interject more refusals.

"I want to send you undercover." The Captain stated, then watched the girl carefully for her reaction.

"Absolutely not!" Olivia objected, raising her voice. "Sir, we have no idea where these girls are going!"

"That's exactly why we need Lena, there isn't another option, Detective Benson." The warning was more dangerous that time, and more effective too as Olivia bit her tongue. Cragen turned back to the girl, "You remember the protocol for that recon case we had you do last month?" Upon an affirmative response, the man continued, "It'd be a lot like that. Simple in and out, except this time we'll plant you first. All we'd need you to do is get picked up by some guys in the 26th, sit through a court hearing to see where you're sentenced, and we'll pull you out before you leave the city."

"I never should've let you do that recon. I should've known it would inspire something dangerous in you." Olivia mumbled, pinching the bridge of her nose.

But the Captain ignored her and looked to the girl for an answer. The girl squinted at the Captain for several long moments, considering. Cragen has made it clear that Olivia's opinion was not the deciding factor in this, Lena's was, but the woman's opinion was still important to her. "Olivia," The girl called and waited for the detective to look at her, "I want to do this, I can handle it. But I won't do this without your blessing. Tell me you don't think I can't handle it, if that's what you honestly believe, and I won't do this."

The tension was palpable as Lena held her breath as she watched and intense internal conflict stir within the Detective. It was a risky move to ask for Olivia's consent, but Lena knew it was the only way to make the woman commit to a decision, hopefully forcing her hand into siding with her.

Olivia breathed a defeated sigh. "I think you can do this." The woman admitted begrudgingly, "But I'm not happy about it!" Olivia exclaimed loudly, glaring at both the girl and Cragen for putting her in this impossible situation.

"Not happy about what?" A light-hearted Elliot strolled into the bullpen, setting his coat on his chair and crossing his arms.

"That I'm going undercover." Lena's cheeky smile pulled an exasperated laugh from Olivia.

"So you're in?" The Captain asked, needing a definite answer.

"Yeah, I'm in." The girl glanced at Olivia for the faintest of nods, then nodded herself to the Captain. This was going to be so much fun.


	2. CHAPTER 2

Instead of wrecking their stomachs at the McDonalds as planned, Olivia and Lena changed course and decided to eat at a small Italian restaurant a couple blocks from Olivia's apartment. It was a favorite of the girl's—Olivia hadn't been any more times than the girl, she hadn't cared enough to go without her—and the waitstaff knew them by order.

"Are you sure you want to eat here?" Olivia asked, even though the had already ordered and were sitting down at their usual table waiting for their food to arrive, "We could go somewhere nicer, if you'd like." The woman offered.

"No, I like this place." Lena smiled, her eyes trailing around the room just as she had many times before. The place was practically empty except for them—and an older couple in the far corner—as it was the middle of the afternoon. The walls were a muted yellow and the tables were made with cheap wood and had faux-leather seats that were pretty tacky. Lena insisted that it only gave charm to the place. Olivia silently disagreed. Their usual seat was in a corner against the window, with the door far enough away that they didn't feel the cold when it opened.

But as they were looking around the room they've seen a million times before, they were avoiding the very large tension between them. It was a test of wills to who was going to break first, and though Lena was just a girl, her stubbornness rivaled the harden detective's. It wasn't until after Marco, the pizza boy who Lena swore was one of the most handsome men she'd ever seen, brought their half meat-lovers, half-Hawaiian pizza and they began picking at it that Olivia finally broke the silence. "Are you sure you want to do this?" She asked, teetering a piece of her Hawaiian half in her hand while waiting for a response.

"Mhmm." Lena swallowed her mouthful, "I'm sure."

"And you know any case that we do involves risk, right?" Olivia caught the girl's eye, "Just because this is gonna be a short case doesn't mean it won't be rough on you. You'll feel connected to whatever the outcome is for the rest of your life."

"I can handle it, Olivia." The girl casually sprinkled crushed red pepper on her pizza, "I would, however, like to hear the rest of the information on the case." She dared a glance up to the detective, hopeful that her request sounded professional enough, despite the Captain already mandating the lunch break for the Detective to fill her in.

"Right." The woman wiped greasy fingers on a napkin then pulled a file from under her coat. She laid it on the table and opened it, allowing Lena to see the pictures of the missing girls and some very rudimentary files. The girl didn't have clearance, so she couldn't see everything, but that file was what they had to work around the rules. "Five months ago, a woman came into the precinct and gave a statement that her daughter went missing. We took the case because the girl was fourteen and had multiple infractions under her belt already. The mother said that last she had heard, her daughter was picked up on some kind of prostitution charge—false, the mother claimed—but had a hearing to determine where to place the kid for delinquency. However, the mother couldn't attend the hearing as she had a probation hearing of her own, and the girl hasn't been heard of since."

"Weird." Lena commented, eyes and ears taking in every detail of the allotted information.

"That's what we thought, too." Olivia took another bite of her pizza, "We found evidence of a court mandated sentence, but since the 26th precinct isn't digitized yet, we couldn't find the transfer orders or location to where the girl is sent. We went over to the 26th precinct to manually find the girl's trail, but there wasn't any."

"There wasn't any trail about where the girl went?" Lena frowned, suspicious.

"No." Olivia shook her head, surprised herself at how that could even happen. "The girl went into the system and just disappeared. Now, we tried getting a sopena for the court transcripts to find out what was said in that court room, but since the girl was a minor and the matter was settled in family court, the transcripts are sealed. If they exist."

"Seems fishy." Lena speculated.

"I agreed," The Detective agreed, "So we dug around some more only to find eleven more cases of the exact same thing. All girls between the ages of 13 and 16 with an impressive rap sheet for their age, arrested and tried in family court and sent to some private detention center where the girls haven't been heard from since. The only inconsistency though, is that about half of girls' parents or foster parents actually had been present at the sentencing."

That's an interesting turn. "And what did they say about what happened in there?"

"That's the crazy part," Olivia frustratedly shut the file, "Nothing. Nothing, really."

"What do you mean?"

"When we interviewed the parents, they said they were there, but don't remember anything specifically about where their child was going." The detective said.

Lena was confused. "So their kid was sent to a juviee somewhere and these parents couldn't be bothered enough to listen to where?"

"They weren't winning any parent-of-the-year awards." Oliva shook her head, disgusted. She wanted a kid so badly. She wanted a certain kid so badly. "Most of these kids weren't even reported missing by their caretakers. Most of the reports came in after teachers and schools called after excessive absences. There could be more missing girls out their that we don't even know about."

The girl let a moment pass as she gathered the courage to ask what she wasn't sure she wanted to know, "Do you think they're still alive?"

"We haven't found anything suggesting they're not." Olivia answered honestly, holding tight onto that belief.

"Who was the most recent girl to go missing?"

Olivia flipped a couple of the photos in the folder to a tall girl with thick eyebrows and long, straight, brown hair. "Genevieve Mellark, called Genny by her friends. 16. Played center on the volleyball team at school. Her parents, Alex and Hank, were at the hearing but neither could recall which detention center their daughter was sentenced to."

Lena looked at the picture of the girl felt devastation over the apathy around her disappearance, an apathy she had experienced all too closely in the foster care system. "That's terrible."

The detective noticed the girl getting bogged down by the inhumanity and was quick to resuscitate her hope, "But that's where you come in." Life returned to the girl's eyes and Olivia felt relief.

"What's the plan?" The girl excitedly prompted.

"Well, we plant you somewhere to get arrested. Cragen's working on making a fake criminal history right now. You'll get picked up by the 26th and probs spend the night in some kind of home or detention center. They usually try to get juvenile cases processed fast so they should have you in the court room the next day. I'd imagine that we'd send in someone to be your parents, but I wouldn't expect them to be very helpful. The court will appoint you a crappy public lawyer and they'll ask you to give some kind of statement. They might ask your parents to say something on your behalf, if we have someone there." The woman finished off her third piece of pizza between sentences and wiped her hands in finality, "They'll rule that you are to go to whatever juvenile detention center and we'll intersect your transport car with your papers just inside the city."

"Sounds like a piece a cake." The girl sipped her water. Olivia never let her get soda when she was with her. Sometimes lemonade, if she was lucky, and very rarely sweet tea so Lena could feel close to her roots. Or so the girl claimed.

"It oughta be." The Detective confirmed, though she would rather not be quelling the girl's nerves too much right then, "But if you run into trouble, don't panic. Just be calm and ride it out. We'll be close the whole time."

"Oh I'm not worried." The girl played with her hands in her lap as she looked at the cup of water that Olivia was reaching for and made it move just out of her grip.

Olivia resisted a smile, because she knew it was a serious matter. "Lena." She warned, dropping her voice. "You cannot use your powers on this case." When the girl scoffed laughingly, Olivia realized the girl thought she was joking. "I'm serious Lena. You're a representative of SVU, you can't let people know."

It was a general rule that Lena not use her abilities in public, as it might cause unwanted attention, and it was a concept that Lena has grown to accept and obey after years of being ostracized and called a freak after her occasional little accidents. Olivia, though, has always encouraged the girl to hone her abilities with practice away from the public eye in case of self-defense or other necessity.

"But what if—" The girl started to object. The limitation of not having her powers to protect her were frightening.

"No 'What if's. You can't use them. At all." The detective shut her down, then feeling bad for her stern tone, attempted an explanation. She knew the girl was much more likely to agree if she understood the repercussions. "Imagine if something did happen during that night you were in a detention center before the case. You'd cause trouble, attract a lot of attention. They might lock you up, start calling people we don't want called. You wouldn't get your hearing, not for a while at least. Then we wouldn't find out where the girls are being sent, case closed with no answers. You understand?"

Lena consigned with a nod. "But..." She continued, "I can't always control it very much."

"You'll control it." Olivia assured her, "You'll control it because you have to. Don't give me another reason to think I oughta call this all off."

"I can control it." The girl repeated, rolling her eyes, "Besides, at this point if you'd call it off, I'd just go in myself. Then were would you be?" Lena smirked and risked a glance at her friend to find Olivia, thankfully, smiling too.

"Shut up, punk." The woman threw a dirty crumpled napkin across the table, bouncing off Lena's shoulder.

The girl laughed, "But I'm a loveable punk, right?" She retrieved the napkin from the booth seat and through it back in giggles.

"Yeah, oh you're loveable alright." Olivia rapid fired a couple more small items, including more napkins and a straw wrapper, while they laughed and the girl struggled to dodge them. She only stopped to glance at her phone once she saw it light up from its position on the table next to the window, while Lena picked up the trash and piled it on the platter where the demolished pizza used to be. "Cap's got stuff ready for us to come back in. Are you ready to go?" The woman was already pulling on her coat.

As was the younger girl. "Yeah, I'm ready."


	3. CHAPTER 3

"Good, you're here." The captain greeted the duo just as they entered the bullpen. "Everything's set up in the conference room. Grab Elliot on your way." He ordered as he dipped back into his office.

"What a warm welcome." Lena mumbled under her breath, and a single chuckle managed to escape from Olivia before she reeled it back in. But Lena heard it for sure and looked up in victory at the smile still lingering. The older woman playfully nudged the girl with her elbow then nodded towards the conference room before she turned around, presumedly to retrieve Elliot.

Lena watched as Olivia approached her partner's desk and struck up a conversation, before the girl turned and entered the conference room to see a familiar face. "Doctor Brewster?" She asked, shocked to see her up here. The girl knew it wasn't that far of a stretch, she did work with the NYPD, but to see the coincidence of her having something to do with their current case was uncanny.

"Please, Lena, call me Myka." The woman extended her hand and shook the girl's when she hesitantly reciprocated. Lena didn't think Doctor Brewster seemed very surprised and assumed she knew about their case and their plans for next steps.

Captain Cragen chose that moment exactly to walk in, only to see two people shaking hands and staring curiously at the other. "Good, Lena, you've been acquainted with Doctor Brewster. Perfect." The man looked around the room, "Where's my detectives?"

"We're here." Elliot answered as he followed Olivia through the door.

"Great. Everyone, please, have a seat." Cragen offered and everyone grabbed the seat closest to them as he closed the door. Lena had landed between the doctor and Olivia and sat comfortably in the leather chair, waiting patiently for Cragen to pass out case files to the appropriate people.

"Detectives," The Captain began, and Lena couldn't help but feel pride in the grouped title, although she knew she wasn't really the intended audience, specifically. "I'm sure you know Doctor Brewster from the Victims Services Unit. She's been helping me prepare your profiles for this assignment."

Olivia gave a friendly nod while Elliot disinterestly glanced at the woman as a welcome. Lena stared at the folder before her that seemed to be screaming for her to open it. The girl didn't dare touch it until she noticed Olivia grab her's and Elliot already skimming through his', and Lena was sure to seem cool as she calmly pulled it closer and opened to the first page.

"We've created a rap sheet based on a compilation of the previous victims'. Underage prostitution, petty theft, simple assault, truancy, criminal trespass. The list is pretty long, they'll be amazed they haven't seen you in the court before. The point is for them to not let you off easy." Cragen glanced at the girl, before moving on, "In that file is the compilation of common factors that we found between the girls."

"You made me fourteen?" The girl exclaimed, annoyed.

"We thought thirteen would be more realistic, but decided that would be too close to the age bracket." The Captain deadpanned. His detectives chuckled, though having the sense to do it quietly rather than face a dirty side eye from the girl.

Lena sighed and moved on, skimming the first page of the file. "Clarke Bristow." She read aloud, trying it on her lips.

"Clarke," Olivia laughed, "Like Clark Kent? I like it." Her comment inspired a laugh from the girl and her partner as well.

"Glad you like it," The Captain turned to the female detective, "Because you named her. You're her mom, Rachel Bristow. And you," He turned to Elliot, "are Rachel's punk live-in boyfriend Aaron Porter. You both are going to the court hearing to be bad parents."

Lena looked over to see a short paragraph in Olivia's file, something about a brief family history in case they ask her anything in court, but she didn't have time to read the whole thing before the Captain pulled her attention back.

"We're dropping you off on Two Notch Avenue, it's well known for its prostitution and the 26th should be patrolling it pretty often when they'll notice you're way to young and pick you up. If they take too long, we'll probably ring in a call from a 'concerned citizen' to hurry 'em up." Cragen finally took a seat, directly across from Lena, and sighed, "We would give you a com, but they'd find it when they searched you to take you in, so we'll have Olivia and Eliot sitting on you when you're on the street. They'll help you if you run into trouble. You should be there a little more than an hour or so before the 26th's guys come. They'll read you your rights and back at their station for processing. Stay quiet and watch out for anything weird that might be leading to these missing girls but if you have to say anything, make sure it's as Clarke would."

"Got it. Then what?" Lena prompted, nodding to demonstrate understanding.

"They'll process you, and then take you to some kind of jail for juveniles. They'll probably take you to the—," he commented after scanning the page beneath him, "Hudson Center. Besides the actual court, this is the most crucial place for clues to where these girls are going, so keep your eyes and ears open in case you need to report anything to Liv or Elliot." He sent a silent message to his detectives with a glance, which they silently confirmed. "Before your time in court, they'll sit you down with a child psychologist, which will be Doctor Brewster. You'll spend an hour in the room for looks just so that she can testify the right things to get you sent where the rest of the girls went."

Lena glanced at the older woman and couldn't help but reciprocated the small, warm smile she flashed at her.

Cragen continued, "There will be a small argument from your public defender, with statements from you and your 'parents', but I don't imagine the judge will need much time to decide your case." He scoffed, "They'll decide they must act in loco parentis and mandate time in the mystery juviee. The case will be done, and you'll immediately be put in a transport car to take you there, and we'll be right behind you. Right before the city limits, we'll pull over your car, catch the transport papers with the mandate order of which facility you were going to, and you'll go home."

"Botta-bing, botta-boom, we find where the girls went and close the case." Elliot surmised.

"That's the plan." Cragen looked around the room at the very capable people in at the table and had no doubt that they would figure out where the hell these girls are going. "So, Lena, you're going to stay for an additional briefing by Doctor Brewster, and Olivia, you're welcome to stay too, but Elliot and I need to get back to working on this. Good luck." The Captain stood and wished the room, before exiting and retreating back into his office to bury himself in further preparation for the case, Elliot right behind him.

When it was just her, Olivia, and Doctor Myka in the conference room, Lena finally allowed herself to breathe deeply. She had felt like she was holding her breath the whole time and now she could relax a little in the company of softer souls.

It's Olivia who talked first. "So, how ya doing?" She turned to the girl.

"I'm a little nervous." Lena admitted.

Olivia gave a supportive smile and reached over to rub the girl's shoulder, a gesture Lena had always found comforting and sweet. "You're gonna do great."

"Detective Benson is right," Doctor Myka added, "You'll do fine, but there is some additional things we need to talk about."

"Like what?" The girl asked.

"Well," The woman began, "I'm a doctor of child psychology, and I've personally dealt with kids that fit the same profile as Clarke, and they're usually not fine outstanding kids like yourself."

The girl held in a laugh; even though she knew the woman was just being kind, Lena wouldn't exactly use 'fine' or 'outstanding' as words to describe herself. She did, however, pride herself on her civility and good humor despite her upbringing, though she would largely attribute that to Olivia's doing as well as the added responsibilities that her abilities gave her rather than anything Lena has done. She smiled at the compliment though, it was sweet.

"Kids like the girls going missing—kids like Clarke would be like—grew up on their own for the most part, and would have a huge authority problem. They weren't given a lot of attention by parental figures or positive role models, so they would seek less positive attention from men—since so many were absent in their lives—mostly in the form of promiscuity. Most of the missing girls' families or foster parents made due with their meager jobs, so turning to prostitution and stealing was less about money and more about the attention and satisfaction they got from it. These girls would act defiant at almost every turn, and resist some to pressure from authority figures, but when someone really stepped in and got serious with them, these girls shut down because that's all they really wanted. Okay?" The Doctor looked up for confirmation.

Lena nodded, "But what does that mean for me, getting picked up and processed and staying in a center for a night?"

"It means that when you—Clarke—get picked up from Two Notch, you'll be resistant. You won't physically fight back much, but you should be loud. Once you get in the station, though, Clarke would start getting pretty afraid and more timid because she might be realizing how bad this is. And like Captain Cragen said, fly a low profile for that part. When they question you, don't tell them anything. Just say 'you had too' and 'you weren't doing anything wrong'. Just lie, they won't believe you and they don't need to really. They'll send you off to a detention center for minors down the street and there, you should keep your head down. If anyone picks anything with you, fight back, but only if someone else starts it. These girls wouldn't have backed down and we're still not sure how these girls are being targeted. If there are male guards, which there probably will be, keep your distance because you don't trust men one bit. You'll see me the next day and then we'll go to court. You'll have the sense to keep your mouth shut, only create a scene if you think the public defender is too good and might win, or if anyone asserts that you are just a misguided kid."

"What kind of scene?" The girl raised an interested eyebrow.

The doctor chuckled, "A one of medium size and duration. Worst case scenario, point your finger at your mom." The woman and the girl looked at Olivia, who was listening intently and surprised to be mentioned, "Blame everything on her, say she didn't love you enough and the world is against you and there was no choice. You know, typical teen stuff."

"Hey, not all of us..." Lena lamented before cracking a smile at the woman's joke.

"Don't be afraid to get a little rowdy. Don't move very much, but you can stand up and make your point. If a bailiff comes towards you, push him off of you." Myka explained, "But I know this is a lot of information at once. Does everything I said make sense?" She looked at the girl.

Lena didn't really have an answer. The plan sounded pretty basic, but she hadn't had enough time to think it through and actually understand it fully yet. So she gave a slight nod, hoping that she'd pick up that Lena needed a bit of time to take this all in.

Doctor Brewster did notice and smiled softly, "It's okay, Lena. If you have any questions before you head out, you can just give me a ring. Detective," she turned to the tall brunette, "Do you have any questions?"

Olivia considered for a moment, glancing towards Lena before confirming that they had a good sense of the plan. "No, not right now."

"Okay great," Doctor Brewster moved to close her files and shuffle her papers together, "Let me know if you think of any, but I think your Captain wanted me to send you to him after we were done, so you should probably head there now."

Olivia stood and Lena was quick to follow. "Of course, Doctor. Thank you for your help." The two women shook hands and Lena managed a wave as she followed the Detective out of the room and into Cragen's office. They knocked on their way in and stood before the Captain's desk.

"How are you feeling about this?" Cragen looked at the girl.

"I feel fine." She shrugged, then decided she should elaborate more, "Prepared."

The Captain nodded, "Great. I want you and Benson to go home for a couple of hours; rest, get some food. Be back here at 10, ready to go."

Lena looked at her watch; 4:53. They had a couple hours to get stuff done. Perfect. After they dismissed themselves, Olivia and Lena went back to Olivia's desk to grab their coats. "So what do you want to do until dinner?" Olivia asked, since they had had lunch late and wouldn't be hungry again for a while. "We probably should go buy you something to wear." She suggested, although buying the already risky teen very risky clothing was the very last thing she wanted to do.

"Will you take me by Jason and Crystal's before we go to the store?" Lena asked. She knew Olivia wouldn't like the idea much, but the girl felt it necessary. She pulled on her biggest puppy-dog pout and waited for Olivia to cave.

Olivia groaned, not even lasting a few seconds and immediately succeeding to the kid. "Fine." She didn't want to question the girl, she trusted it was important to her. "Let's get a move on then."

Twenty minutes later, Olivia pulled the car into an empty parking spot down the street from Lena's current foster home. She looked at the girl, "Are you ready?"

The girl forced a nod and got herself out of the passenger seat. Though she was dreading going into the house, Lena found herself smiling at the memory of the first time Olivia let her sit in the front seat. Lena had just turned thirteen and Olivia took her camping outside of the city to celebrate her birthday. Lena had started to get in the back seat like normal, when Olivia stopped her and reminded her that teenagers sat in the front seat. Lena hadn't remembered feeling as important or old as in that moment.

She certainly didn't feel that way as she got out of the car now and walked towards Jason and Crystal's. "What do you need to get?" Olivia asked.

"Just a couple small things. I don't want to leave anything important in there over night because I don't want anything to happen to it." The girl shrugged as she met the detective in front of the car.

Olivia felt the familiar heart ache that she felt often when the young girl admitted anything that young girl's shouldn't feel or know about. The detective took a deep breath and reminded herself that the girl was still young, but she wasn't a child anymore. "Do you want me to come in with you?" She asked anyway, and was relieved when the girl nodded in response. Lena was growing up, Olivia told herself, but the girl relied on her to fight the battles too big for herself and Olivia knew she'd always be there to defend the girl.

"What are we going to tell them," Lena's voice pulled the detective from her thoughts, "About where I'm going for tonight."

Olivia honestly hadn't really considered it yet, as she had a sort of jealous disdain for the couple—as with most of the foster homes that Lena's been through—and would take the same secret enjoyment in removing Lena from their custody that she'd felt every time she'd picked the girl up from a foster house for the past decade. "Do they know that you're planning on being emancipated?" She asked.

Lena scoffed, "Of course they do. They can't wait." She unsuccessfully held the bitterness from her voice.

"Then we'll tell them that there's some hearing that you're doing and need preparation for it, so you're staying with me." Olivia paused in thought, "I'll talk to them while you get your stuff."

They reached the stoop of the building and Lena rapped several times on the door. It took several moments of waiting for the door to open and reveal Crystal. "Oh hello, dear." She opened the door open further for Lena, and then acknowledged the detective, "Hello Detective Benson. Thank you for taking Lena home, we were starting to get worried about her."

"Actually." Olivia began, making eye contact with Lena to tell her to go ahead and get her stuff. As Lena made her way up the stairs, she heard Olivia tell Crystal about how Lena was going to stay with her for the night and Crystal readily accept as if it was a question. Everyone in the room knew that the foster mother was just covering for her husband, hoping that the girl going to the cop's house was inconsequential from the 'accident' earlier that day, and was willing to do anything to smooth it over. Lena really didn't mind the woman, Crystal was nice enough and really just a victim of circumstance almost as much as Lena was, so the girl tolerated the woman but absolutely nothing more.

Lena couldn't hear any more of the conversation as she turned down the hallway and went into the room she shared with Juliet. The girl was a dramatic, anorexic mess that continually "annoyed the shit" out of Lena, so she had hoped the girl would be out with her loser boyfriend Scott, but was throughly disappointed when she saw the other girl laying on her bed painting her nails. "Oh, you're back." Juliet couldn't have sounded less impressed and didn't spare the girl a glance.

"Not for long, bitch. I'm outta here for the night." Lena gloated. She knew Juliet wanted to be in the home as much as she did.

"Oh, finally turning to the streets like the trash you are?" Juliet casually insulted as she stood from her bed and went to her desk to find the clear top coat for her nails.

Lena rolled her eyes, "Why would I need to go to the streets to see trash when I have enough right here, Queenie." She walked straight to her bed and pulled a small duffle bag that she kept close, under her bed. The girl hurried to pull out the box the bottom of her closet and set it on her bed. The box held her happiest memories of her childhood, mostly birthday cards and momentos of her silly adventures with Olivia when she was a kid. There were a couple other important things in the box too—her best report cards, some certificates of achievement she'd gotten from school, a couple of her best drawings. She'd be devastated if something happened to them. The girl then crawled on her bed and reached to the other side to grab the stuffed tiger that Olivia had given her when she was 7 and shoved it in the duffle bag before Juliet could see.

Lena walked to her meager dresser and was shuffling through the top drawer to find her absolute favorite necklace that had 'fearless' on a small plate, when she heard Juliet's annoying voice once more. "Lena, look at me."

The girl started to be annoyed at her roommate and turned to her, intending to shred her with some kind of comment about how she had to learn to shut up before Lena would teach her, but the girl stopped cold when she saw the way Juliet was looking at her. Well, her eye, more specifically.

"He did it again." Juliet's revelation wasn't a question. "What happened this time?"

Although Lena felt genuine hatred towards the girl, she felt some sort of connection with her too. Lena couldn't recall anytime Juliet had been hit—the girl always cowered in submission when Jason made a move towards her—and Lena sort of admired the way the other girl could just shut her mouth. It lead to a lot less trouble. Sometimes, Lena woke up in the middle of the night from nightmares, and if she was loud enough to wake Juliet too, the other girl would hum a little hymn and it always intensely comforted Lena. They would never speak of it, though.

"I broke something earlier, when you were still at cheer practice. Jason didn't like it very much." Lena zipped up her bag, lifting it on her shoulder. If there was potential for fallout later tonight from Jason, Lena thought it would be fair at least to warn Juliet if she couldn't be there to help anything later.

"And you're... leaving, because you reported him?" Juliet said slowly, dangerously.

"No." The girl turned away from Juliet, "I'll be back in a couple days, max." Lena wanted to comfort the girl, knowing she'd feel like trash if she'd be left. Lena knew Juliet wanted her to finally say something against Jason, to get them out of there, but Lena couldn't find it within herself to be brave enough. Although she'd never actually admit it, she'd hoped Juliet would understand one day.

"Bye." Lena blurted, feeling strangely guilty, and didn't wait for Juliet to respond before fleeing downstairs. The girl was relieved to be back with Olivia's security and didn't say anything to Crystal before dragging the detective back out the apartment with a curt "Let's go," and a shove towards the door.

They only spoke once they got back in the car and were heading to a mall a couple blocks away. "Did you get everything you needed?" Olivia asked.

"Yeah," Lena continued to look out the window, "What'd Crystal say about me leaving for the night?"

"For you to be careful." Olivia caught the girl's eyes and both laughed even though it wasn't funny.

The rest of the car ride was quiet as Olivia drove them to the mall and directed them to a store she thought might have something a 15 year-old prostitute might wear. "Looks boujee." Lena commented as they entered and walked towards the back of the store.

Neither of them particularly liked shopping and made quick work of looking through the store, picking up a few items they thought might work, before taking them back to a dressing room for Lena to try on. Olivia didn't even let Lena try on some of the clothes the girl picked out, citing them as way too revealing, and Lena only tried on a couple of outfits.

Through bargaining and concessions, Lena found herself in tight black leather shorts, fishnet stockings, a dark red sheer tank top with a leather bralette under, and black vans. "Damn," Lena looked at herself in the mirror of the dressing room, "I look hot." She smiled, feeling the rare comfort in her own skin.

Olivia scanned the girl down with a curled lip of distaste and rolled her eyes. "Fine, it looks fine. Just take it off so I can pay and we can get out of here."

A sly smirk found its way to Lena's lips as she imagined herself with heavy makeup and straightened hair, then she went to change back to her jeans and sweater. By the time she'd retied her shoes and exited the changing room, Olivia had paid and was standing at the door waiting. She saw the girl's smirk and rolled her eyes again. "After this case is done, I'm burning these clothes, just so you know." Olivia told the girl. Lena just smiled wicked, thinking about places she could hide the clothes where Olivia couldn't find them.


	4. CHAPTER 4

"Are you starting to get hungry?" Olivia asked as she locked the door behind them.

Lena wondered further into the apartment and slid her backpack off her shoulder and onto the kitchen counter. "Yeah, I could eat." They both glanced at the clock on the stove and decided they should eat soon so they had enough time to relax before starting to prepare for the night. "Maybe we could call in?"

"I was thinking the same thing," The Detective grabbed her collection of to-go menus from the side of her fridge and handed them to the girl, "What are you in the mood for?" Olivia moved to stand beside the girl and spread out the menus to see them all. "Italian is out," She slid them to the other side of the island counter, "But maybe hibachi?"

Olivia had been really surprised years ago to learn the girl was extremely picky. Lena was such a go-getter and an explorer in every other aspect of her life; except food. Especially when the girl was younger, Olivia had a difficult time finding things the girl would eat, so she mainly fed her chicken nuggets and mac and cheese—Lena's favorite food of her childhood. The girl hardly ate at her foster home, as the busyness of the household always left Lena without any viable options for food and it was Olivia's privilege to take her out and feed her a good meal once a week. But ever since Lena was eleven or twelve, Olivia worked hard to push the girl to try new foods, little by little. It started with hamburgers, which the girl loved as expected, and moved to several different meats, including sandwich meat which made the girl's life easier. A recent development, however, was hibachi. The girl hadn't liked any Asian food Olivia had managed to convince her to try, but a couple months ago Lena had shrimp hibachi for dinner once and fell in love with it. Olivia happily obliged, whenever she could.

Lena's smile grew. "Hibachi sounds great."

"What kind do you want this time?" The Detective pulled the menu from her favorite hibachi restaurant and pushed the rest away.

"Funny, 'Livia." Lena laughed. Because since she'd let the detective convince her to try shrimp hibachi last year and loved it, she hadn't had any other kind and refused to try now, "Shrimp please." The girl nudged Olivia with her elbow before meandering to the living room to find the remote.

When Olivia had placed the order five minutes later, Lena was ensconced comfortably on the couch with an episode of 'Once Upon a Time' queued up already. It was their favorite show to watch together and they'd been watching it since the premier of the pilot six years ago, a fact they took great pride in. Olivia had been seeing commercials before it came on and thought the girl might like it. It featured a strong female character which Olivia loved for Lena to see and had definite magical elements that the woman thought applicable and comforting to the kid. Lena seemed to agree.

They were currently a few episodes behind, as it'd been a while since Lena had been over, and the girl picked the episode that would put them where they left off. Olivia sat down next to the girl and threw a blanket over them both before Lena laid her head on the detective's shoulder and the episode started.

The girl had been somewhere between awake and asleep when she heard the heavy knocking on the door, which startled her back to 100% awake. Olivia made sure the girl was sitting up before she dared to move, then grabbed her wallet on the way to the door. A minute later, the woman was returning with several containers from the hibachi restaurant and Lena was wide awake. She accepted her container and the potstickers Olivia ordered and pressed play back on the tv to resume their show.

The episode ended, and Lena and Olivia—with fully bellies—decided it was time to start getting ready for their case. "How should we do my hair?" The girl joked, before turning to Olivia for actual advice, "What do you see girls wearing on the streets?"

Olivia was off-put by the question and needed a second to collect and answer, "Its like the 90's haven't left them yet. If we tease your hair out some and maybe pull back the shorter hair in the front, we should be good."

"Will you help me get ready?" Lena asked, looking up to the detective with wide puppy eyes, and they both knew—in that moment—how truly Olivia was wrapped around Lena's pinky finger.

Something sparked in the detective, like she'd never known she'd wanted to hear Lena ask for her help to get ready until now, though Olivia would've thought it applicable more to prom night or a date rather than a prostitute in an undercover gig. "Of course, lets go to the bathroom," she started towards the main bedroom, "My makeup and hair styling stuff is in here."

Olivia begrudgingly allowed the 15 year-old to put on heavy eye makeup and bright red lipstick, only after the girl convinced her it would help her blend in. "What 14 year-old kid would go out there knowing they look young without at least trying to look older." She had said.

"Especially when you look 12. Any help looking older might be good for you." Olivia joked, but there was truth in that made her cringe internally.

Both of them sobered up with their thoughts. It was Lena that spoke first, "Do you think I should cover the bruise?" Her voice sounded timid and vulnerable as she stared at the black eye in her reflection of the mirror.

"Keep it." Olivia suggested, though she could hardly stomach her words, "It might come in useful and it'll make you look more natural on the street." They both nodded and continued fixing up the girl.

It took a full hour until they decided the girl looked ready. She was wearing the black and red "disaster"—as Olivia had called it—that they'd gotten earlier and had on makeup with matching ferocity. But it wasn't until they walked back into the kitchen to munch on some peanut butter MM's that she really felt the girl looked out of place. It's as if the detective was willing to believe they were just having a makeover or playing pretend in the bathroom as they had went the girl was little, but the façade was broken with the stark juxtaposition of the girl's heavy makeup and punk look that contrasted with Olivia's clean kitchen. Lena had been in her kitchen countless times before—and the woman fondly remembers pretending to ignore watching a tiny hand with the soft green nail polish that Lena had loved as a small girl reaching for freshly baked cookies that were cooling on the counter—but things were very different now.

Now Lena's eyes had heavy black Smokey eyes with red accents and winged eyeliner. She'd put glitter highlighter on, which Olivia hadn't known existed beforehand, and chosen a color a few shades lighter than her shirt for her lips. They'd teased the girl's hair a bit and chosen to keep it down to make her seem like she wanted to appear older. As Olivia looked at her—the girl's gloom and doom outfit seeming wildly inappropriate in comparison with the whites and earth tones of the apartment—the detective realized she would probably guess the girl was 18, as long as she didn't look too closely. Despite that, Olivia still saw the scared little girl under all that makeup and it dawned on her that that was probably the situation for most of the street girls she came in contact with.

"How ya feeling?" The girl could feel the detective's eyes on her as they ate MM's and Olivia asked the question.

"Good." Lena shrugged, popping in a last few before scooting the bowl away from her.

The Detective scanned over the girl, suspicious, but left it alone. Regardless of how afraid Lena was, Olivia had no doubt she'd appear fearless and do what needed to be done, just as she had in the past. "So are you ready to head out?" Olivia moved towards her jacket.

"Yeah," Lena stood beside where her backpack sat on the counter, "I know you don't usually let me leave my crap here, but is it okay if I leave some stuff here just this once?" She watched as an objection formed on the woman's lips and immediately began a defense, "Please? I think one night would be okay in the group home, but I think if I were gone for two days Juliet would start snooping and take my stuff. It's happened before. Please?" The girl clasped her hands together to beg.

"Of course." Olivia immediately felt guilty and caved. The girl thought she didn't want her stuff there out of cleanliness, which is far from the truth. Olivia wouldn't mind if there was a bunch of junk covering every flat surface in the apartment, as long as it was Lena's. The detective already had the girl's latest report card on the fridge—Lena begroaned having to see her B in math every time she came here—and several of the girl's drawings were framed in the living room. Pictures decorated the apartment of the woman and the girl, both of varying ages, with one of the woman's favorites on her bedside table of their camping trip for Lena's 13th birthday. Olivia reconciled that she would be merely watching the girl's stuff while she was gone on a case, it was a favor to a friend or coworker, rather than her guarding the most important things to an important girl.

Olivia shook the thoughts from her head, "You can just leave it there," She started pulling on her jacket, "Are you ready to go?"

After Lena nodded, Olivia followed her out of the apartment, gazed at the bag on the table, then locked the door behind them.

Almost an hour later, Lena and Olivia were back in the car, but this time the car was a dark unmarked patrol car and this time Elliot was with them. They had briefly stopped at the station to pick up Elliot, have both detectives change into plain clothes, and get approval from the Captain about the girl's new look, before taking off towards Two Notch. Lena hadn't been nervous before really, but she was certainly starting to feel it then. She cleared her throat to notify she was about to talk. "So," she paused so she could be sure the detectives were listening, "what happens if someone tries to pick me up?"

"Well you shouldn't be out there very long before the guys from the 26th come," Elliot immediately assured her over his shoulder.

Olivia continued the explanation, "But if some guys get to you, tell them off. Be rude. These creeps usually like someone easy, so make it not worth it for them and they'll probably leave you alone. Maybe we should make a signal for you to tell us that a guy is giving you a hard time?" She was more-so suggesting to Elliot.

"Like what?" The girl asked.

"Putting you hair behind your ears with both hands. If you make it kind of a bigger motion, we could see it from down the street." The man told her then looked in the rear-view mirror for confirmation.

Lena nodded, "Got it." She let the car settle back into silence for a beat before asking another question, "What if something happens?"

Detective Stabler immediately went to reassure her, "You'll be safe, we wouldn't let anyone hurt you."

And although the words were kind, that's not what she meant. Olivia, having picked up on it, turned around in the passenger seat to deliver a warning disguised as comfort, "Nothing will happen." And Lena picked up on the connotation; Olivia was telling her she couldn't let anything happen. Lena had a difficult time grappling with that; she couldn't always control it, but sure as hell wasn't going to let that get her caught and destroy her first real case.

Only minutes later, the car pulled up to their stop on Two Notch. It was a moderately well-lit section of the road, but had a few groups of girls standing in clumps all the way down the stretch. "Here's your stop." Eliot said, scanning the road, "We'll be half a block up, in front of that blue building, but try to not look to us."

"Okay." Lena forced out, straightening her shirt, "Bye."

Olivia had turned around again and placed a warm hand on the girl's. Lena could feel security and trust and belief in herself. "Be safe, and good luck." The Detective wished.

The girl couldn't think of any other way to stall her exit, so she opened the door and stumbled out before the car took off suddenly behind her. The second she righted herself, she felt eyes on her, so she stood up straight and pushed her curls behind her shoulders.

"You okay?" A voice asked from a few feet away. Lena, now as Clarke, looked up to see a girl she hadn't seen till just then leaning against a wall. The girl was definitely older than Lena by a couple years, but she carried the weight of decades on her shoulders. She wore a sparkly navy dress and very high heels, which left a lot of the girl's tan skin on open display. Lena looked behind her towards where the car had been and realized it looked like she'd just been dropped off by a John.

The girl stepped on to the sidewalk. "Yeah, I'm alright."

Lena felt the other girl give her a once-over. "Rough job?" She nodded towards Lena's black eye and the girl felt immediately self conscious.

"Yeah." She tried to shrug it off, "But it's fine." She went to lean against the same wall as the girl.

The other girl didn't back away from Lena and she counted that a success. "What's your name, kid?" She asked.

"Clarke." She was sure to pace herself, not hesitating but not wanting to seem over-eager either. "Whats your's?"

"They call me Luna." The other girl finally took her scrutinous gaze off of Lena to scan the streets.

Lena huffed, because that's not what she'd asked. "What do you call you?" She pushed.

'Luna' quickly turned to curiously watch the younger girl, apparently trying to gauge her interest and her intentions. It seemed as though Lena passed the test, as the girl sighed in concession, "Ilse." Lena wanted to comment about how pretty she thought the name was, but kept her mouth shut as she was sure the girl would think something of her over-interest.

"How old are you, Clarke?" Ilse had the curious gaze again.

"Old enough." The younger girl immediately answered. Too quick, really, and that was the point. It wasn't really necessary that the other girl believed her.

And Ilse did show suspicion at her answer, but thought better of calling her on it and shifted gears, "Are you new around here?" She meant the business—the life style—that they currently found themselves in.

"I'm new to this part of town." Lena messed with the edge of her shorts, but didn't elaborate more. Whatever assumptions the other girl made was absolutely fine.

"Well, welcome to Two Notch." The older girl gave a sarcastic smile, "It's usually a pretty shit place. If a creepy dude named Peter tries anything with you, run away." She was warning laughingly, but Lena heard the truth in it too.

Before Lena could ask anything else, a man walked up to them. "Aye, you girls working?" The man was upfront, at least, which the girl commended.

"Yeah," Ilse immediately flipped a switch to 'work' mode, where she adjusted her posture back and jutted out her breasts and hips, "You need some company?"

The man smiled, displaying vile teeth and a leer that disgusted Lena. "Depends on how much you're asking." He outright checked the girl out, blatantly staring at her cleavage.

"Twenty for anything oral, thirty for anything going in me. Extra charges for any preferences." The older girl listed, like she'd said it a hundred times, and Lena was surprised she could sound so technical while wrapping her arms around the man. Lena felt like she should advert her eyes, but couldn't manage to pull her gaze away from the interaction.

"And how much if your friend came with us?" The man pulled away from the young woman in his arms to smirk at Lena.

Luckily, Ilse distractedly shut him down before Lena had to. "She's too expensive for you, stud." Lena felt relief, even if Ilse was just securing the John for herself to get more money, and Lena felt absolutely no hard feelings. She also gained that being too expensive might be a good way to repel men trying to get with her. "Let's get out of here." Ilse prompted, pulling the attention back to herself. The man began to lead Ilse away when Lena connected eyes with her. Despite her affectionate and sultry tone and actions, Lena could see in the older girl's eyes how much she hated herself for doing this. Lena nodded a 'goodbye' and watched the girl lead the man around the corner.

By the time Ilse returned, several other men had approached Lena, asking for her services. She had taken to teasing the men purely as a delaying tactic before she named her price and had the men angrily pushing away from her, usually grumbling about her being overpriced as they stalked away.

She was mostly finished with her little routine when Ilse came back around the corner, flattening her frizzy dark hair with the palms of her hands. Lena whispered an exorbitantly high price in his ears and steadied herself as he pushed off her. He looked like he was going to hit her until Ilse raised her voice, "Aye, you lookin' for something?"

"Yeah," The man lowered his hands and shoved them into his pockets, "A girl who can blow me without trying to empty my wallet."

A smirk crossed Ilse's smooth features, but Lena didn't miss the way the older girl's eyes flashed to her and answered her call for help, "I think we could reach an arrangement." She dipped her hands into his pockets and pulled him towards the corner. Just before she escaped into the alley, though, Lena managed to mouth a 'thank you', which Ilse acknowledged with a slight nod.

The girl, alone again, pressed her back into the brick wall and watched the chaos of the street. There were plenty of people walking around further down and occasionally cars would slow down and drive by. She was scanning the area to her left for potential threats for only moments when a dark figure stood over her and way, way too close. "'Aye girl," The man leaned close into her face, "Haven't seen you around before. How much for a night with you?" He touched a dirty hand to the back of her neck, to pull her closer.

Lena's mind burned with the images of the unwanted contact. She saw purple for the man's lust and the green of the wad of cash in his back pocket. She saw brief flashes of mystery women beneath him in beds. She saw the very hand that was touching her covered in blood as the man ran through a cloud of white fear. His name was Ezra Montgomery and he was a murderer.

"Five hundred." Lena named some astronomically high number as she pushed the man's hand from her, careful to not use all of her strength to hurt him, as good as it would've felt.

The man laughed. "That's a little high for a baby like you. Maybe you could lower the price if I give you some experience?" He reached for her again.

"I can't do that." She pushed him off another time—despite his strong grip—and turned to head down the street, just anywhere away from this jack-off.

"Listen here, bitch," he grabbed her arm and spun her around to force her against the wall, "I'll just take it for free then." He reached for the hem of her shirt and only ripped an inch into the fabric when—in an instant—Lena had her hands on the man's chest and pushed as hard as she could. She's sure she felt a few ribs crack.

"Bitch, what the fuck?" The man doubled over, struggling to take in deep breaths. Angered, he charged towards her again and shoved her against the bricks so hard she was sure any normal person would be knocked out by the impact. Lena was just about to send the man flying when there was suddenly space between them.

The girl watched with surprise as Elliot, apparently having correctly perceived the need for assistance, peeled the man off the girl and punched him in the face. "My girl said no, bastard." Lena was mildly impressed by how hard Elliot's fist hit the man's face and caused his nose to bleed. They watched the man stand up straight, cradling his bloody nose and mumbling explicatives, and both didn't move until he'd gotten a safe distance away. Lena didn't dare move, waiting to see how Elliot was going to play this, as people began passing by them again after the altercation. They had attracted attention and the few people on the street were looking at them.

"Damn it." Elliot grumbled as he grabbed the girl's arm and yanked her around the corner of the building. Lena obediently followed and let him drag her further into the alley. Once he had deemed them far enough in, he whispered a soft, "Sorry." Lena was about to question him, and thank him for her rescue, until she felt him lean her against the wall and cover her with his body. She was shocked into submission and allowed him to move her easily. She wasn't sure what was going on, but she knew she had to trust the detective.

"Lena, I'm so sorry." Elliot whispered as he took her hands and pinned them to either side of her head. He pressed as close to her as he could, hating the way it felt and daring to keep minimal contact because he just couldn't make himself press too hard into the small girl with his body. Elliot was glad his partner was in the car up the street, probably worried out of her mind, but far enough so she couldn't see what position he was in with her little girl.

"What happened?" Elliot leaned down to the girl's ear, making it look like he was paying special attention to her neck. His question demanded an explanation.

"That man..." Lena fought to keep her voice even, especially in her current uncomfortable position, with the fragments of the man's memories swimming through her mind, "His name was Ezra Montgomery. He killed two people." Her voice was strained and weak-sounding.

Elliot wanted to ask how the fuck she could know that, but pushed down the question. He knew he wouldn't get any answers. Especially when he was pinning the girl against a wall in a back alley, making it look like he was having sex with her. "Are you okay?" He opted to ask instead.

"Yeah." She answered, though neither of them particularly believed her.

Elliot adjusted his position slightly, rolling his shoulders to ease the tension of the straining position. "Well we put in a call to the 26th, they should be here any minute." Just as he muttered the words, blue lights called their attention from the street. "Shit." He grumbled, frustrated he didn't even get any time to get out of there smoothly. "Clarke, I gotta go." He reminded her before stepping back from her, leaving her feeling exposed.

"I'll be okay. See ya." She pulled her shirt down since it had ridden up and covered her stomach with her arms. She watched him jog further down the alley for only a second before she turned and ran the opposite way, towards the street.

When she hit the street, another person immediately grabbed her and Lena was getting tired of everybody's hands all over her all of the time. When she saw it was Ilse leading her down the street, she was surprised and confused. "Clarke you gotta get out of here, the cops are here. You're too young." And Lena felt guilty for causing all this.

She shouldn't try to run to keep up, so she dragged her feet. It was her point to get picked up, she couldn't let Ilse get her too far away. "Wait, my friend." She pulled her arm from the older girl's grip and took off, hoping that the lame excuse would work and Ilse wouldn't think she was important enough to worry about.

Ilse, however, was persistent, and chased after her towards the police. "Clarke, we have to go." She was already several feet behind the girl and was winded. "Clarke!" The girl heard Ilse call after her, when she ran straight into a police officer and they both fell to the ground from the impact.

She started to stand and ignored all of her instincts telling her to run away, and waited for the cop to get up under the guise of seeming disoriented. The man grabbed her wrist, "Woah, lets take it easy, kid."

Lena weakly attempted to yank her hands free and looked behind her, trying to show Ilse she'd been caught and she should get away while she could. But the girl turned just in time to watch Ilse recognize the danger a moment too late, and an overly-aggressive cop wrapped thick arms around Ilse's waist. "Don't hurt her!" Lena panicked, easily escaping the man's grasp and stepping towards the distressed girl.

"Relax." The officer yanked Lena back by her shirt, further distressing the tear already there, "You'll be okay." He assured her as he held her by her shoulders. Lena had no choice but to obey him and stop resisting. She was racked with guilt as she watched the other officer handcuff Ilse and drag her towards one of the patrol cars.

"If I let go of you, will you run away again?" The man said calmly, and Lena shook her head. He immediately released her and she stepped away to turn and look at the man. "What's your name, kid?"

Lena looked at her shoes, annoyed that everyone kept calling her kid, despite how old she felt and felt she looked. "I'm Clarke." She hung her head.

"How old are you, Clarke?" The man leaned down into her view. Lena was further annoyed that everyone kept asking her that, even though she knew that was the point of the cops being here.

The girl looked up to lie straight to true cop's face, "I'm eighteen." She showed no remorse and stood strong in her blatant lie.

"Mhmm," the cop squinted his eyes, "How old are you really?" The girl felt his eyes scan intensely over her face for any kind of indicators of truth. But Lena didn't give any. She crossed her arms and shrugged. The officer sighed, grabbing her arm once again, "Okay, kid, I've got to take you to the station." Lena opened her mouth to attempt, but was immediately shut down before she could even try. "Don't make this any harder on yourself than this needs to be." He touched her arm and gestured toward the flashing blue lights.

As she followed him, she glanced down at the contact, confused about why hadn't gotten a read on him, until she saw the latex gloves over his hands. She felt more than a little insulted, feeling like a piece of trash that the man couldn't stand to touch with his bare hands, but she was ultimately relieved. Lena didn't have great control over her abilities, and there was no guarantee of what she'd see if she could read the man's aura. She could just get the flash of colors, or be burdened with his deepest fears and memories. It was an image she'd gladly live without, despite how she missed the intimacy she felt with strangers that she read.

"I am going to put you in the back of the car, okay, kid?" The cop opened the back door of his cop car. The flashing blue lights made it hard to see where exactly the door way.

"Are you arresting me?" Lena made herself get mad, though she felt somewhat guilty for giving the cop a hard time. She knew he was just doing his job and seemed like a nice guy. Even though she had had some definitely rough run-ins with police officers, she tried to give them the benefit of the doubt—until they wronged her at least. She had seen Olivia distraught after too many rough cases for Lena to ignore that detectives and officers had lives of their own. As the girl was placed in the back of the squad car, she noticed the picture of the four small children taped to the dash. "I didn't do anything wrong." She forced herself to object.

The cop closed the door without answering her. He got in the front seat, started the car, and began to drive away from the other flashing blue lights. "Um, hello?" Lena obnoxiously reminded him of her presence, "What the hell are you charging me with?" She wanted to make sure that they got the right idea, before this got any further.

The cop sighed and Lena could tell she was starting to annoy him. "I'm charging you with prostitution, soliciting underage sex, probably running away when we get back to the station and I find out more about you." He glanced back at her through his rear view mirror to find her pouting and looking out the window. Although he seemed to shut her up for right now, he suspected the girl wouldn't be this easy the whole time she was in his custody.


	5. CHAPTER 5

Lena groaned as she flopped on the stiff bed. It had been a long night already and though the bed seemed uncomfortable, she was happy to finally be alone and laying down.

Although the girl's processing had taken a relatively short time—compared to what she had been preparing herself for in the car—the process had been painful. The cop who had taken her in had fingerprinted her and uttered a string of strong explicatives when he saw her rap sheet. From then on, he took special care to be watching her at every moment, ready to take off after her if she'd decided to make a run for it. He had called her 'parents', and Lena had heard Olivia's voice telling the cop to keep her there as she wouldn't be coming to pick her up at that time of night. Or any time of night. With the cop's eyes on her like a hawk, they had waited on someone from social services to come and take her to the Hudson Center, where Lena was finally laying down at just past 3AM. Not her finest day.

Lena looked around the room and decided it wasn't that different from her room at Jason's. In the dim light, all she could see were blank walls and another bed against the opposite wall that she hadn't noticed before. The bed, thankfully, was empty so without further investigation of her surroundings, Lena turned on her stomach and allowed exhaustion to overtake her.

The girl felt like she'd only blinked when she opened her eyes next and was still completely exhausted despite the sun beginning to shine through her small, reinforced window.

"Time to get up." A harsh, shrill woman's voice beaconed her completely awake and Lena heard banging on her door. Groaning, the girl slung her feet over the side of the bed and grumpily mumbled how much bullshit this was. Lena thought about how she could easily rip the door open and stroll out and back to bed, heavily considered it, then made herself make her bed neatly in submission.

The door to her room opened suddenly and Lena quickly pulled on her shoes before exiting. "You finally done, Princess?" The woman, in a shoddy uniform of khakis and a polo with a badge on the collar, smirked as Lena passed through the doorway. The girl only managed a scowl as she passed the woman, which solicited a laugh from the guard.

"Come on," she grabbed the girl's arm, apparently tired of her dragging feet, "There's breakfast in the mess and then you've got your pre-court appointment with the new doc." The young girl complied as the brief flashes flashed across her mind—images of red anger at girls just like her, and sitting in front of a television eating McDonalds—and silently wished she'd gotten to keep the jacket they'd had her in at the police station last night.

Lena nodded and was careful to relax, allowing the lady to 'escort' her down the hall as she kept her eyes open as instructed. The hallway was a tan color with light tiles. It was clean and had many closed doors that Lena wasn't tall enough to see into.

The girl was soon lead into a large common room with about thirty girls scattered across a couple tables. Lena noticed that many of the girls looked as rough as she probably did, but there were a couple girls that looked just a little too comfortable and Lena was sure to glance over the room and document their placements to keep an eye on them.

The woman—her name was Robin Reid, as Lena could feel—shoved the girl towards a table and pushed down on her shoulder to make her sit. Lena bit back a comment to take it easy and sat down heavily on one of the benches. A moment later, a tray of bland-looking food is set in front of her and she's finally left alone.

Lena picked up the spork from the tray and scooped a bite of the eggs. Their consistency, though, didn't seem right to the girl and she returned the utensil to the original spot on the tray. She was suddenly glad that she ate so well the day before with Olivia, as it was looking like she wasn't eating much in custody.

Thinking about Olivia, a small smile snuck onto the girl's face as she imagined the detective having a cow about Lena being in the center for so long. She knew the detective would prefer if the girl was in and out first thing, but realistically would know that wouldn't be the case. So just like Olivia would be doing, Lena reminded herself to keep her patience and continued to push her food around her tray.

"Are you gonna eat that?" A voice from Lena's left asked.

The girl looked over and saw another girl, around her age, with glasses and long, smooth dark hair. She was looking cautiously at Lena's plate. The girl was of Asian decent and was by nature petite, but as Lena looked closer, she noticed how young the girl looked. Definitely younger that herself. Lena felt sorry for her, as she was sure she was a victim of terrible circumstances, where Lena was just here playing pretend for a day. "No, I'm finished." The older girl said, pushing the tray towards the other girl with a tight-lipped, disappointed smile.

"Thanks." The girl mumbled, pulling the tray towards her and digging in vigorously to the 'eggs'. "I'm Emme." The girl said, out of obligation, Lena suspected.

"Clarke." She nodded back, watching the younger girl curiously as she ate.

"You get in today?" Emme asked between bites, and despite her casual words, Lena couldn't get past how young she sounded still.

Lena nodded, "Yeah. But I'm on my way out soon."

"Oh." Emme said, and the other girl swore she heard disappointment in her voice, though she didn't know why. They didn't know each other.

The older girl felt the need to counter the response and redirect, "How long have you been around here?"

"Couple days," the girl shrugged, moving on to the piece of meat that Lena guessed was supposed to be sausage, "But I've been here a couple times already." Emme didn't elaborate, and Lena didn't want to push so she let an awkward silence grow between them.

"Listen," Emme interrupted the moment and looked up to Lena for the first time, taking a break between mouthfuls, "Watch your back, wherever you're going. And here too, though it's short. Even a day is plenty of time to find trouble."

Lena frowned, "What do you mean?" She schooled her shoulder and hands to a casual and relaxed position.

"Those girls a couple tables over have been staring at you since you came in." Emme shrugged towards the door where Lena entered.

The older girl dared to sneak a look over her shoulder to scan behind her and found, sure enough, several older girls glaring at her from three tables back. They didn't stop even when they saw Lena looking, bravely continuing to stare the girl down. Lena couldn't decide if they were angry or what, but was unsettled nevertheless. She turned back around to face Emme again, though she could still feel the eyes on her back. She knew she had to play this cool, although she couldn't figure out what they could possibly want with her. Lena literally just got there and had already attracted extra attention. She hadn't even had time to mess up or anything yet.

She was baffled until the girl looked down at herself. They had made her take off her makeup last night at the station, but she realized she was still wearing the clothes she'd been arrested in. The shorts and tights and tank top that made her feel so powerful the night before left the girl feeling naked and vulnerable and transparent now. It's like they had looked at her and immediately knew she was different. Although Lena knew the girls posed no physical threat to her, she was unnerved by their bold staring and that she couldn't guess their intentions.

"It's probably the clothes. But you're also small and pretty, they might think you're a perfect target." Emme had resumed working on the breakfast. "The really just want power and control, nothing that serious."

Lena shivered slightly at the complement, but also at what the other girl had meant by 'target'. Target for what? She'd wanted to ask, but didn't think she wanted to know the answer, so instead she just adjusted her clothing to make it look longer and willed the breakfast period to be finished.

And, miraculously, her wish came true only minutes later when a bell went off and all the girls began to stand from their tables and grab their trays. "Okay, girls, time to go back to your rooms." One of the officers instructed from one of the doors. "Make sure you put your tray up on the lift."

Lena followed the crowd and noticed that Emme stayed close to her as she shuffled closer to wherever everyone was trying to go. They reached the counter in the wall and placed their trays on one of the revolving panels then turned to follow the rest of the crowd.

In all the chaos, Lena felt someone bump against her shoulder, knocking her into the wall next to the counter. She went to keep on walking though, choosing not to say anything to the person that had ran into her, as a part of Cragen's instructions to keep her head down and not start trouble. In this kind of situation, anyway. But Lena was stopped and somewhat confused by a hand on her hip that pushed her back against the wall. She was confused and disoriented until she found herself stilled by a larger body pressed against her's, and two separate girls holding her hands back against the wall. Lena thought of how easily she could shove her way free and probably toss the girls across the room, but there were too many people around. Despite her being pinned to the wall, there were girls passing the altercation, still putting up their trays and minding their own business. Lena thought about how she wished she could be able to do the same if she were them, but knew she couldn't avoid stepping in.

It's only then, moments after the initial contact, that Lena looked up to the face of the girl holding her down—despite already knowing from the contact that it's the girls that were watching her earlier—because Lena needed them to know she wasn't afraid of them. "Well aren't you a cute little thing?" The older and bigger girl, Lena knew her to be 17 and named Shelby, smirked down at her captive. "Cute little things do real well around here," She made a show of looking up and down the girl's body, "If they impress the right people."

Shelby, the bully, leaned in closer to husk in Lena's ear, "And I am impressed." The older girl pressed further into the younger.

It was then that Lena's eyes flashed behind the bigger girl, to what little she could see around her wide shoulders, and she decided enough people had passed to make a statement.

"Get your hands fucking off me." Lena twisted her hands out of the girls' restraints and shoved all three of them off at once.

The two sidekicks took a step back, but Shelby remained fervent. "Oh we got a feisty one. And strong." She took a dangerous step towards the girl again.

Lena squared up to take a swing, but of course that's when a guard spotted them and made a swift approach. "What's going on here?" The older lady crossed an arm across her chest and hovered a hand over her baton in case they decided to get rowdy. When no one made a move, Lena and the bully caught in a dangerous stand off of wills, the guard moved between them and pushed Shelby away. "Shelby, Rachel, Ivy; get out of here." The woman had known the girls by name, and Lena deducted that they must be regulars around her. "New kid, I'll take you back to your room." She had seemed to side with Lena, as it seemed those girls made a habit out of picking on those smaller then themselves, and offered 'protection', however temporary and unnecessary, and Lena was at least grateful.

"Thanks." Lena forced out, rubbing her wrists to feign hurt and adjusting her shirt.

The officer motioned towards the hallway and Lena began walking, happy that the lady was treating her like a real person and not dragging her down the hall. "I think I'm supposed to go to see the doctor after breakfast, actually." Lena mentioned, shrugging then adding a "I think?"

"Oh, of course." The woman slowed and took a quick right turn, which Lena turned and followed, "You're new here. Makes sense."

"Thanks." Lena mumbled, unsure of what else to say or how to answer. She concentrated on watching the officer's boots tap against the tile and echo in the empty hallway.

Several quiet beats passed before the officer spoke again, "Does that happen often?"

"Does what happen often?" Lena frowned, looking up to see the woman curiously watching her.

"Bullies." The woman supplied, referencing the altercation she 'rescued' the girl from earlier.

Lena considered how Clarke would answer and gave a nod, "Sometimes." Her tone was testy and touchy.

The officer laughed. "There's no need to get defense, kid."

"There's no need to get nosy, lady." Lena retorted before she'd thought better of it.

"Touché," The woman stopped laughing but a smirk lingered on her lips, "I was just trying to figure out if I'd have to keep an extra eye out for you in here." Lena felt guilty; the woman seemed genuine.

Despite herself, she remained guarded and uptight, though she softened her voice slightly, "Well I won't be here long either way."

"I don't know, kid," The officer shook her head, "Unless your case was deemed an urgent emergency, a judge won't hear your case until Monday morning."

Lena shrunk. "Monday?" She repeated quietly.

The officer seemed to actually feel for her as she said, "Yeah, tomorrow. I know that sucks. We just started the rule." She shrugged.

Deflated at the idea of staying here all day and an extra night without much hope of getting this over with, Lena held herself together. She was disappointed; she'd barely slept the night before and the food wasn't looking appetizing. She guessed it was silly, though, to expect that this place would be comfortable. It's just one extra day, and she was sure she could leverage closing her first case to finally have a sleepover at Livia's. It'd be worth it for the justice for the families and the feeling that she'd had an important part of it.

"Well, kid, this is the new doc's office." The officer presented the door before knocking and opening the door.

Lena was relieved when Dr. Myka, a friendly familiar face, stepped out into the hallway and greeted her and the officer. "Hi, I'm Doctor Brewster." She offered her hand to the woman first and shook it.

"Cambell. I'm the head CO of girl's side. Nice to have you here." She firmly shook the doctor's hand.

Dr. Myka then turned to Lena and addressed her, "I'm Doctor Brewster. I'm the psychologist here, and I'm new just like you. You must be Clarke?"

Lena nodded subtlety, knowing that Clarke would be uncomfortable with the sudden and direct attention. When she realized the girl wasn't going to answer, the Doctor invited the girl in the room and thanked the officer.

"Clarke, come find me if anyone's giving you a hard time. Got it?" She waited for an affirmation before waving to the girl and the doctor and taking her leave.

When they both were in the office and the Doctor had shut the door, Lena finally took a deep breath. The doctor waited until Lena looked at her to speak. "How are you?" The woman moved towards her new desk and pulled the seat out for Lena to sit in before she sat in a fancier chair on the opposite side.

"It's fine, so far." Lena shrugged. She didn't really know this woman, but she was the closest thing she had to comfort at the moment and she allowed herself to relax in the stiff chair.

"Just fine?" The doctor smirked.

Lena huffed. "It's not exactly a five star hotel." She exasperated before she refocused, "But the booking went pretty smoothly and I slept alright. A couple girls tried to rough me up after breakfast, but it really wasn't a big deal?"

The doctor set her elbows on the desk and her chin in her hands. "What happened?" She leaned forward, towards the girl.

"Nothing, really." Lena shrugged, "I was just putting up my tray and these two girls pushed against a wall and the third—Shelby—made some really... strong, remarks."

"What kind of 'strong' remarks?" Doctor Myka pushed.

Lena shifted uncomfortably in her chair, "I don't know what her deal was. But she was coming onto me really strong."

"As in," The Doctor paused, "Sexually?" When Lena nodded, the Doctor spoke again, "That must have been really scary."

Lena shrugged again, "It was only a couple seconds before that lady who brought me here stepped in."

"Officer Cambell?" The woman asked, for clarification.

"Yep."

Dr. Myka nodded, processing, before moving on with the debriefing, "Have you seen anything out of place or weird yet? Anything that sparks a bad feeling in you?"

Lena considered her short time in the center so far. "No, not yet." She shook her head, "But I guess I have all day to check the place out." She said, a sort of bitterness seeping into her voice that the doctor couldn't help but laugh at.

"Yeah, sorry about that." The woman suppressed her laughter, "It's a new thing. We didn't know. But we'll have you out of here tomorrow morning."

The girl sighed, ready to move on from talking about her extra night here, "So what do they think your reason is for being here?"

Dr. Myka recognized her attempt to change the subject and humored her, leaning back in her seat, "Officially, I'm a temporary replacement to a psychologist taking maternity leave. That's why we wanted to go ahead with all of this as soon as possible."

Lena nodded, "Makes sense."

"So I took over all the lady's cases, and the new ones that would usually be assigned to her." The Doctor explained, "Including you."

The girl nodded, thinking, then adopted a mischievous smile, "So what are you gonna say about me, in court?"

The woman laughed. "It will be my recommendation, upon this 'interview' and review of your criminal record, that you should be remanded to state custody in a detention center with at least a level 3 security."

"Level 3 security?"

"Anywhere with less of a security level might be some strict sort of foster home, which wouldn't be appropriate with someone of this rap sheet. It's in accordance to what the other girls would've been sentenced to," The doctor explained, "It's actually quite generous of a recommendation."

"Oh, I get it." Lena laughed. "You're being nice."

The doctor was helpless to chuckling too, before looking back to the girl. "Is there anything else you wanna talk about?" She meant—truthfully—to ask generally, but her eyes flickered to the girl's black eye and Lena noticed.

Lena immediately sobered and crossed her arms over her chest. "Nah, I'm good. When do I have to go back?"

"Soon," Dr. Myka waved her off, "But before we get to that, Detective Benson wanted me to ask about any 'incidents'? But she didn't specify to what she meant by that." She looked at the girl expectantly.

"Tell her no, there haven't been any." The girl shrugged, trying to play it cool, before adding a soft, "Please."

The doctor nodded, knowing she wouldn't get any more answers out of the girl. She stood to dismiss the girl, when Lena spoke again.

"Wait, Dr. Brewster," Lena stooped her, then saw an objection forming on her lips, "I mean—Dr. Myka." Both smiled. "How is Liv? Is she doing okay?"

"You mean how is she holding up without you?" The doctor eyed the girl knowingly, and Lena adverted her eyes. "She doing fine, Lena. She's definitely... concerned about you, but she's been working non-stop since she left the scene last night."

Lena wasn't sure what she wanted to hear, but she supposed that was close enough because she felt comforted and satiated. "Thanks."

"Any more questions?" Doctor Myka asked kindly, and when Lena shook her head, she started towards the door, "Well I guess we best be getting you back then, huh?"

"I guess so." Lena shrugged. But really, she felt revived and excited to go back. She had heard about juvie from plenty of her friends at school and in her various homes, and was eager to learn its truth. The girl followed Doctor Myka to the door.

When the woman opened the door, she hesitated. "I think I'm supposed to escort you back, right?" The Doctor asked.

Lena laughed, "I don't know, Doctor!"

"Well I'll walk you back today, as a test trial." The Doctor passed through the door and locked it behind them after Lena followed her through. "And we'll see what happens." She grinned conspiringly. It was the first time Lena had seen her express direct emotion and the girl felt powerful.

They walked idlely, in no real rush down the hall and Lena was a little disappointed when they reached her 'room'.

"Stay safe in here, kid." The Doctor opened the door and Lena walked in. "I'll see you in court on Monday." The woman gave a small wave to the girl and shut the door, leaving Lena to an empty room and her thoughts for the next few hours.


End file.
